Thank goodness that in the end, Agustín Tapia and Arturo Coello won the match. If they were to lose the final of the Chile Padel Open against Ale Galan and Juan Lebron, they would never forget the refereeing error made by Honorio Garcia in the second set.
Outrageous or surreal are some of the adjectives that could be used to express what happened yesterday in the final of the Chile Padel Open. Tapia and Coello were well on their way to their third consecutive World Padel Tour title. 6-4 in the first set and 5-3 up in the second with serve. At 30-30, the player from Valladolid unleashed a quick shot that went just wide.
What was supposed to be 40-30 and a match ball for the pair turned out to be 30-40, as the referee announced. A human error that went unnoticed by all the players, except for Ale Galan. The next point was won by Tapia with a smash and, with that, the Argentine and the Spaniard hugged each other thinking they had won the tournament. Juan Lebron was waiting for them at the net to shake their hands for the victory. However, when Galan returned to the 20×10 after his failed exit from the court, he commented that Honorio Garcia had said 30-40.
An unprecedented situation in professional padel. Neither Tapia nor Coello can ask for a video review for that quick smash (another point had already been played) and neither can the referee make any corrections. What happens? The players have to return to court to play the golden point, which would end up being won by the Spaniards.
The set would end up falling on Galán and Lebrón’s side, taking the match to a fateful third set. In this, Agustín Tapia and Arturo Coello managed to close, once again, a match they had already won, winning their third consecutive World Padel Tour title.
If you haven’t seen the sequence, we leave you below the exact moment it happened:
Thank goodness the refereeing error didn’t end with Galan and Lebron’s victory. If it had happened, we would be talking about the most unfair defeat in the world of racket sports.
What was disgustingly unsportsmanlike was that Lebrun and Galan took advantage fully knowing that they had been beaten fair and square.